Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Disclaimer: this is an actual review. I am an actual owner of this new model. To the confused public: this is an actually, physically upgraded version of the vision plus. The P2 and the V+ are the two that received this upgrade. The Phantom 2 Vision did not receive any upgrade. The upgrades are incremental but add up to be pretty substantial. V2.0 refer to the upgraded Phantom 2. V3.0 refer to the upgraded Vision Plus. The upgrades I feel are more for those who wish to set up their phantom 2 with gimbal, go pro, fpv, and iOSD. Mainly because of the increased payload (800g total increase) improves flight of the gopro setup, which can get quite heavy, while keep flight time about the same (so DJI claims) The Vision plus has all the features of P2+IOSD+gimbal+gopro+fpv trandmitter at a much lower price tag, and in a much nicer, hassle free, all in one package. It is quite a bit lighter too. This is why the upgrades are not that apparent on the vision plus - it is already quite light and has excellent battery life. So after using the v+ v3 for a week, here are my thoughts: --------------------------------- BATTERY LIFE: I get about 15 minutes before it screams in warning and all the lights go flashing red. This indicates 20% battery remaining, and up to 5 minutes left before it drops totally out of the sky. Quite a disappointment in this regard. It is rated at 25. Spare battery essential. I've seen other Vision Plus (original) owners claim they get about 20-25 minutes of flight, but I've also seen owners say they get 15-20. Over all, with the more efficient motors and propellers, I was expecting 20-25. This is a little disappointing. ------------------------------------ FLIGHT: I have no original V+ to compare, but I have FC40 and walkera x350 pro. As with the FC40, the V+ is very stable, easy to fly and get fantastic aerial shots. I flew it in snow today: it's pouring down 3-5 inches of snow and I just threw it out there. Got some amazing footage. ------------------------------------ TRANSMITTER UPGRADES: The added scroll wheel for gimbal control is fantastic. It's spring loaded, with just the right amount of resistance and inertia, that allows for smooth, slow pans but also quick change of angle. I never had a problem with using AA batteries, until I had this upgraded transmitter. Now going back to AA-run batteries seem like traveling back in time. This rechargeable business is super nice. It's one less thing to worry about. You power on transmitter, battery indicator turns on. You see how much battery it has left. I flew about 5 batteries before power indicated went down to 3 out of 4 lights. When that happens, just plug in the included cable and into a power adapter, charges it up right away. ------------------------------------ FPV: Wifi extender + phone works fantastic for me. It's nice to have live flight data right there. Satellite count, signal strength, speed, altitude, battery life, etc etc. I have not experienced much slow down in video downlink or anything. (See update below for updated experiences). You need another $200 setup on the phantom 2 to get those things (iOSD + transmitter + receiver + monitor, etc) UPDATE: I now have experienced FPV videos being choppy, toward the far end of the control range. This does not affect the actual video being recorded, only what is being live streamed to your Vision App on the phone. During a waypoint mission, the P2V+ flew out of wifi range and the app went dark. But after a few minutes (heart-wrenching) it flew back. Footage was fine. GROUNDSTATION: Super fun and easy to use. Plan out course on phone, set speed, altitude, etc, hit go, then you can rest your hands - it takes off automatically, goes from waypoint to waypoint, adjusting altitude as set by you, then returns and lands itself. All you have to do is control camera angle for your shots. Amazing. ------------------------------------ CAMERA & IMAGE QUALITY (UPDATED): I liked the Vision+ camera's quality at first, now I correct myself. The quality is lacking compared to even the SJ4000, and I find myself unsatisfied with some of my videos. Serious users who demand the best video want to go with Phantom 2 + Gimbal + GoPro 4 Hero Black. But then you might as well get the Inspire One, or maybe even Walkera Scout X4 or H500 TALI (for telemetry and FPV ready out of box). HOWEVER, with GOPRO 4, you need to leave it at 170 fisheye to get full 4k, which is not the best for video production due to fisheye effect. I tried correcting/importing some short 4K videos on my quadcore i7 Alienware running SSD. It took FOREVER. Like, an hour for 10 minutes of footage. Not very practical. Change FOV to narrow and you are down to 1080p or 2.7K possibly. Also GoPro + Gimbal is cumbersome to set up. Overall, I am reasonably satisfied with the video footage, when I consider the stabilization and the all-in-one design as a whole. I have GoPro Hero 4 Black, with a Walkera quad + gimbal. But I never use that set up. The Vision+ is just that much more convenient. ------------------------------------------------ CONS: 1) I wish battery life was better, but it's understandable. Think about the $3000 Inspire One. Its battery capacity is about double of the Vision+, and that can only fly for officially rated 17 minutes. Battery is down to 20% in about 15 minutes, so I think you can squeeze 20 minutes of flight if you really wanted. But please please bring it back close and not fly over water/dangerous terrain during the last few minutes. 2) The price of the Vision+ camera/gimbal. GoPro Hero 4 Black + Zenmuse Gimbal is about $800. The V+ camera/gimbal is about $700. The V+ camera/gimbal is one part - cost of repair/replacement is very high. I think the V+ camera unit should cost about $400, and DJI need to offer cheaper replacement parts. You should treat the quad, and especially the gimbal/camera with care. Exercise reasonable precautions. Really with the V3.0 upgrades, DJI SHOULD HAVE upgraded the camera as well. They did not want to cannibalize Inspire One sales, I understand. But at least improve the 1080P video quality! 3) Image quality. So far I have 2 real issues with the image quality: A) Metering. Often times the sky is overexposed, meaning all the details in the sky are lost - it's all white/gray-ish when in fact it's blue and has beautiful clouds. My SJ4000 is always able to get details in the sky while not have the landscape below be too dark. (Note I only said SJ4000 and not GoPros). You will want to use spot metering. B) Weird light artifacts at night. It is hard to describe, but you can check out a video sample on my youtube channel - search for Ran Ran Rising. ------------------------------------------------------ VERDICT: I am just in love with this quad copter (and all my Phantoms). I say this after researching all products in the market and their price to performance, and after using competitor products, and finally after owning the actual Vision Plus V3.0. I love it. You can see all my videos and photos and thoughts about it on YouTube and Wordpress, under name RanRanRising. I have some video footages from the Vision Plus camera and of the quad. Amazon limits file size otherwise I'd just upload here (not intentionally advertising my own channel is my point). With the V+ V3.0 out, I haven't really seen any amazing deals on the original V+. You'd be looking at $150-200 extra for the V3.0. You get the stronger motors, better propellers, anti-interference guard for compass module, and upgraded transmitter. To me, the upgraded transmitter is the only thing that significantly improves the user experience. The gimbal control is essential to getting good aerial shots. So overall these upgrades are well worth the extra money. HOWEVER, if you can get a good deal on the original Phantom 2 Vision Plus, then you are not really losing much going with that. Both will fly very stable, about the same, and give the same image quality. In my opinion, the V+ and V+ 3.0 are both excellent deals, and are still the best out there. If you want P2+Gopro 4 set up, expect to spend about $2000 to have similar features as the $1300 vision plus, with more hassle and higher maintenance.